dberdinka Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 I like these two, they concisely express some of the deeper pyschological reasons for climbing. Any others? "If the conquest of a great peak brings moments of exultation and bliss, which in the monotonous, materialistic existence of modern times nothing else can approach, it also presents great dangers. It is not the goal of "grand alpinisme" to face peril, but it is one of the tests one must undergo to deserve the joy of rising for an instant above the state of crawling grubs. " Lionel Terray (following the ascent of Mount Huntington in Alaska in 1965.) "The wall, the climbs, inanimate objects, so often personified, are never really conquered. Man can only conquer his weakness, exceed his self estimates, and fail to yield as his very soul begs that he retires." -Don Davison (1974) Quote
sobo Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 "There are old climbers and there are bold climbers, but there are no old, bold climbers." Paul Petzoldt, founder of NOLS and 2nd ascensionist of the Grand Teton Quote
sobo Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 "Good wezzah, bad wezzah, any wezzah is good wezzah for climbing." Karl Freitag, from "The Eiger Sanction" Quote
sobo Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 "Experience is the result of employing good judgment, good judgment is the result of surviving bad judgment." Not sure, but I think it was Mark Twight or John Roskelly, but I could be wrong on both counts Quote
catbirdseat Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 sobo said: "Experience is the result of employing good judgment, good judgment is the result of surviving bad judgment." Not sure, but I think it was Mark Twight or John Roskelly, but I could be wrong on both counts That quote is older than either of those fellows, but I can't recall who it was who first said it. He was British, no doubt. Quote
RobBob Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 "Shit, why do I still get that slightly-dizzy, chicken feeling when making that first step back downward?" -self Quote
thelawgoddess Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 "Was mich nicht umbringt macht mich stärker." - Nietzsche Quote
sobo Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 thelawgoddess said: "Was mich nicht umbringt macht mich stärker." - Nietzsche Lemme guess... "That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger." ? Quote
Thinker Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 'If I woke up in the middle of the night and saw my partner fingerpainting with his poop on a rock in the moonlight, I'd take all the best gear and leave.' Al Errington, SMR, opening comments to a group of beginning climbers who had just sat through a much too enthusiastic lecture about back country waste disposal methods. Quote
Dru Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 "When I was in high school, dry tooling was what we did when we couldn't get a date on Friday night" - Jack Tackle. Quote
hikerwa Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 "H, i'm not gonna leave you H." Taylor Brooks K2 (1992) Quote
Alpinfox Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 Dru said: "When I was in high school, dry tooling was what we did when we couldn't get a date on Friday night" - Jack Tackle. That is one of my favorites, but I thought it was by Yvon Chouinard? Quote
hikerwa Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 "Your gonna die for sure." Eric Simonson Ascend DVD( ) Quote
sobo Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 hikerwa said: "H, i'm not gonna leave you H." Taylor Brooks K2 (1992) That movie was so suck in terms of realism (or lack thereof). A snow peg holds a tentful of people in an avalanche chute. And then, oh yeah, a Huey makes the save somewhere waaaaaaaay above its 10k-foot ceiling. Yeah yeah yeah. That's it. Almost as bad as totin' along a case or two of nitroglycerine on your next 8k-meter summit bid. WITF does Hollywood come up with this crap? Quote
sobo Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 iain said: Ignorance is the mother of adventure Now that's a good one. Did you come up with that on your own, iain? Quote
Alpinfox Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 A little "pointy-headed", but interesting: Modern sociologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi outlines "flow theory" to describe the experience of climbing. Flow refers to the holistic sensation present when we act with total involvement. It is a kind of feeling after which one nostalgically says: "that was fun," or "that was enjoyable." It is the state in which action follows upon action according to an internal logic which seems to need no conscious intervention on our part. We experience it as a unified flowing from one moment to the next in which we are in control of our actions, and in which there is little distinction between self and environment; between stimulus and response; or between past, present, and future." from: http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/frameindex.html?http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/life/why_climb_erica_goldman.html Quote
whirlwind Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 " i got a rock formation in my pants.. whould ya like to climb on?" Quote
thelawgoddess Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 wirlwind said: " i got a rock formation in my pants.. whould ya like to climb on?" Quote
Alpinfox Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 From the same source... In "A Near View of the High Sierra" Muir describes a dangerous situation nearing the summit of Mount Ritter. He was brought to a dead stop, with arms outspread, clinging close to the face of the rock, unable to move his hands or feet either up or down. My doom appeared fixed. I must fall....When this final danger flashed upon me, I became nerve-shaken for the first time since setting foot on the mountains, and my mind seemed to fill with a stifling smoke. But this terrible eclipse lasted only a moment, when life blazed forth again with preternatural clearness. . . . The other self, bygone experiences, Instinct, or Guardian Angel, -call it what you will, -came forward and assumed control. Then my trembling muscles became firm again, every rift and flaw in the rock was seen as through a microscope, and my limbs moved with a positiveness and precision with which I seemed to have nothing at all to do. Had I been borne aloft upon wings, my deliverance could not have been more complete. Quote
iain Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 sobo said: iain said: Ignorance is the mother of adventure Now that's a good one. Did you come up with that on your own, iain? It's on the back of the helmet of someone in Portland Mountain Rescue, not sure who said it but pretty funny. Quote
Dru Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 "[the ice was so hard that]Putting a screw in was like trying to twist a banana into cement" - Eric Dumerac Quote
Bob_Clarke Posted June 30, 2003 Posted June 30, 2003 Number one I order you to take a number 2. Beavis & Butthead. Quote
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